These talks will take place at The New Milton Memorial Hall commencing at 7 p.m. on the dates below:

14th September.Lyndsay Stride, a New Forest Commoner from a traditional commoning family, is a Trustee of the Foundation for Common Land who is also working in education & interpretation and currently co-ordinating a project called Commoning Voices.

Lyndsay is working on the details of her presentation which will include history of the New Forest and its commoning heritage

At this meeting there will also be a short AGM of the Milton Heritage Society.

12th October.Honouring the Memory of Lt. Cmdr. David Balme DSC

The life of David Balme. The quiet naval hero.

David Balme was the 20-year-old sub-lieutenant who, in 1941, boarded a German U-boat in mid-Atlantic and captured an Enigma machine and a treasure trove of intelligence material – one of the greatest secrets of the Second World War.

Although best known for this ‘secret capture’, Balme also had an active naval career in WW2 – on convoy escort duty in the Battle of the Atlantic, flying Albacores over the Western Desert at El Alamain, and becoming senior Fighter Direction Officer with the Eastern Fleet to secure victory over the Japanese.

This talk by Ray Mayes will follow the life of Lt. Cmdr. David Balme DSC until his death in January 2016 and consider his role in history – should he have been recognised with a higher honour?

9th November. Nick Saunders. 1918. How the final year of the Great War affected our community.

This talk will review how WW1 and the events in 1918 played a major impact on our district. 1918 saw the highest number of casualties in a single year for the whole war for our town. It will also look at the bigger picture of world events in the last months of the war, some of which have shaped the world we live in today.

There will be no speaker in December.

11th January.John Lay-Flurrie. Family Stories

John researched and wrote about the origin of his family name for many years and began talking to groups about family history. This led to him to become aware of our interest and concern in ancestors to the extent that we neglect our own stories and those of our families.

Are we relying too much on digital media? What will our great-great grandchildren know about us . . . ?

8th of February.Friends of New Forest Airfields. The New Forest airfields during WW2.

8th of February Dr Henry Goodall, Chairman FONFA.The New Forest Airfields during World War II

The New Forest today is a haven of peace and tranquillity for many, both residents and visitors. This presentation is an overview of the twelve New Forest Airfields in WWII, including their purpose, genesis, locations, types of airfield, squadrons and aircraft stationed hereabouts and their uses, with particular emphasis on the D-Day period in June 1944. The PowerPoint presentation will be accompanied by a commentary and personal stories of the servicemen and women who took part in this remarkable period of local activity.

Dr Henry Goodall is a retired Consultant Occupational Physician, with a lifetime interest in aviation, who became interested in the New Forest Airfields, on moving from Southampton to the New Forest in 1995.

He is Chairman of Trustees of the Friends of the New Forest Airfields (FONFA), who opened a new Museum to the public at Bransgore, in May 2016.

He served briefly in 10th Btn (TA) of the Parachute Regiment in the early 1960s, and is a member of Pathfinder UK, with whom he has carried out six commemorative static line parachute drops from World War II veteran Dakota and other aircraft, in France and the Netherlands, in addition to five training jumps, over the past four years.

A factual and occasionally amusing look at Policing in a bygone generation. Initially in the Borough of Christchurch, and latterly in other county towns of Hampshire.

Police cars from the past – burglars who ‘catch themselves’ – ‘False phone callers’. These and other stories will be highlighted by our speaker.

An illustrated talk by Andrew Varney – former community Police officer in New Milton.

If you have an interesting subject for, or are able to give a presentation on local history or heritage in the Parish of Milton and district, then please contact the Milton Heritage Society Speaker & Events Secretary, Clive Rigden via e-mail: clive@rigden.net or telephone: 07 860 526 679.

This is to let you know that there are two aviation talks at East Boldre Village Hall on the evening of Friday 29th of June. See below for details.

Nick Saunders
Chairman
Milton Heritage Society.

Two Illustrated Talks at East Boldre Village Hall

Two Great Pioneers of Aviation

Friday 29 June 2018 at East Boldre Village Hall

The Silver Dart and the First Flight of the British Empire
By Hon Col Gerald P J Haddon, RCAF (Rtd)

Gerald Haddon will unravel the fascinating saga of how his grandfather, J A D
McCurdy of Canada became the first person to fly in the British Empire in 1909. One
hundred years later, Gerald helped replicate both the Silver Dart and the experience
from the same setting near the estate of McCurdy’s associate, Alexander Graham
Bell. The success of the Silver Dart was instrumental in McCurdy’s building the
Curtiss Jenny, in his establishing the first aviation school in Canada and in
encouraging the large number of Canadians who came to RFC Beaulieu Training
Station in East Boldre to learn to fly for the Great War.

Charles Rolls (co-founder of Rolls-Royce), along with Drexel and McArdle from East
Boldre displayed and flew their aircraft at Britain’s first International Aircraft Meeting
in Bournemouth in 1910. Rolls, one of the first to order a Wright aircraft, built under
licence by the Short Brothers who created the first specific aircraft factory in Britain,
was the first person to complete a nonstop return flight across the English Channel in
June 1910. He died one month later at the Bournemouth Aviation Meeting in the
country’s first fatal aircraft crash.

The talk is in two parts and covers the history and development of Southampton from Roman times until today. Apart from the stories of visiting kings, a giant, Jane Austen and the Luftwaffe, who all left their mark, we shall explore the remarkable mediaeval remains of this historic walled town. Part one covers Southampton 0-1850; Part two covers 1850-the present day.

Salt has been produced along the Lymington coastline since at least the Iron Age and potentially even earlier. The methods of production changed in the sixteenth century and the heyday of the industry was between the seventeenth through the eighteenth century. The final production took place in the 1860s by which time it was uneconomic to produce salt from sea water that required coal to be imported as a fuel. The local industry could not compete with salt imported by train from the geological salt deposits in Cheshire. The talk will look at recently discovered new documentary evidence and results from archaeological excavations that further our understanding of the industry and its impact on the local landscape.

The Industrial Archaeology of the New ForestTutor: Frank GreenThursday 5 July 2018, 10.00am-12noonFee: £6

Visitors to the New Forest are quite ofter surprised at the range of industries that once benefited from the varied local geology, forest and timber resources and the needs of emerging urban populations especially in the post-medieval period. There is a ready appreciation of the ship and boat building industries that have continued into modern time. However, the New Forest in the Roman period was in places characterised by an extensive Roman pottery industry that exploited the local clays and woodland resources. Similarly, these resources were also exploited in the late medieval and modern periods for brick and tile making. The sea-salt production industry was extensive possibly from the Iron Age. Iron production has also taken place along with cement production, exploiting coastal resources. The talk will look at recent advances in our knowledge.

Female Emancipation: a brief history of the progress of women’s rights in the United KingdomTutor: Geraldine BeechThursday 12 July 2018, 10.00am-12noonFee: £6

From Queen Matilda to Elizabeth I and from Harriet Martineau to Theresa May, British women have long exercised influence and power out of all proportion to their legal status. Despite this, women have only gradually moved towards economic, social and political equality with men and, in the eyes of many, this achievement remains incomplete. This session will attempt to trace the evolution of women’s rights over the centuries, and will focus on some the women (and men) who advanced feminism in this country.

On 12th of May this year there will be an open day at Ballard School. The house was built in 1904 for an American family, the Ubsdells. The house is in the arts and crafts style with some magnificent fireplaces and other features still in place. They also have a heritage room with lots of images and information on the house and estate. There will be two organised guided tours of the building on the day. If you click on the below link it will take you to the booking.

Would members of the LDHS be interested? If so please can you forward the below link on to them.

The New Forest National Parks community archaeologist is offering local history groups the opportunity to receive training in the use of some equipment which could help in geophysical survey projects. At this point in time we have no planned Geophysical surveys in the Milton area. However, after training we may have a better understanding of the potential that the equipment offers. The last large scale archaeological dig in Milton that I am aware of was by Mrs Gill Hurst in 1956 in the Moat Lane area. http://miltonheritagesociety.co.uk/chapters/barton-on-sea/the-fort-in-moat-lane/

Would anyone be interested in this training? If so please can you get in touch with me. I will collate names and pass them on to the NFNP.

Regards

Nick Saunders
Chairman
Milton Heritage Society.

Dear Local Group,

We would like to offer you the opportunity for some free geophysical training and access to geophysical equipment as part of the New Forest LoCATE project.

LoCATE (Local Community Archaeological Training and Equipment) is a partnership between archaeologists at Bournemouth University and the New Forest National Park Authority, to provide training on the use of, and access to geophysical survey equipment. The current equipment that is freely available for groups to book out and use in their own time is a FM36 Magnetometer and a RM15 Resistivity meter. These have been supplied and maintained by Bournemouth University who also provide free training for interested users. The goal is to enable an even greater contribution to the understanding of the rich archaeological heritage of our region. We are also about to add a total station to the LoCATE equipment pool (more on this in the near future).

The equipment is made freely available to local groups (booked out online and then collect from NFNPA HQ in Lymington) to use on their own projects and in their own time once they have attended one of the free training sessions run by Bournemouth University. The next training day will be on Friday 2nd of March in Lyndhurst.

Please let me know if some of your group may be interested in attending and I will send over some more details, please also know if you have already been on the training, but might want to partake in a little refresher session.

I would particularly like to draw your attention to free trip to the National Archives at Kew on 23rd of January 2018. The coach departs from the main car park in Lyndhurst at 08.00. This is a fantastic opportunity to research your family, or Milton Parish history. Click on the link below to reserve your place. Also note the date of the next Community Heritage Forum where history and heritage groups from across the forest can meet to network, discuss research projects and seek help or advice for their projects. I was pleased to see that NFNP intend to run further training sessions in 2018 including one oral history recording. I will let you know the dates of these opportunities when they are announced. Have a look at the New Forest Knowledge website which has just been launched. The link to the site is below. This will become a great resource for all of us and there is a fair amount of Milton Parish coverage.

Regards

Nick Saunders

Chairman.

Milton Heritage Society

Good afternoon one and all,

I hope you are all enjoying the countdown to Christmas, I just wanted to take the opportunity to contact you with a few upcoming events in December 2017 and January 2018 and would appreciate it if you would please circulate this to your members.

Dates for the Diary:

Community Heritage Forum – Thursday 25th January 2018.

Our next Community Heritage Forum will be hosted by the Fordingbridge Historical Society at the Avonway Community Centre, Fordingbridge from 19:30. More details to follow in the New Year.

This will once again be an opportunity to meet with other community heritage and archaeology groups working in the Forest to discuss current research, projects, training and potential opportunities. There will be our usual open platform where all groups are invited to talk about their current activities and projects, promote your current research, seek some help or advice if needed and engage with your other local groups. All groups are free to talk if they would like for up to 5 minutes. We would also encourage groups to bring any information or publications they want to circulate for a literature exchange during the forum. We will again look to bring in some key speakers.

Next trip to the National Archives – Tuesday 23rd January 2018.

The fifth trip to the National Archives will be early in the New Year so a good opportunity to put your New Year’s Heritage Research Resolutions into practice. Will operate in the usual way with coach leaving Lyndhurst at 8am arriving at 10am to give you free reign of the archives until coach leaves at 5pm. Tickets are still free due to ongoing interest in the trips and you can book your coach place here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/national-archives-researchers-trip-5-tickets-40899718158

Training Opportunities

Following the success of the recent GIS training for local groups we will be running some more sessions in early 2018 along with some Oral History training sessions and some reformatted social media training sessions.

If there is anything your group would be interested in receiving training or skill development in please let me know as we can use Heritage Lottery Funding to bring in the experts required to help you.

News

New Forest Knowledge

The New Forest Knowledge website was launched at the recent New Forest Knowledge Conference. If you haven’t visited it yet why not pop over to www.nfknowledge.org and take a look. I would encourage to you have a play around and see what we have been developing. The ambition is to provide a free and easy location for you to access New Forest material in various national and local archives and databases. There is also the ability for you to register and add your own contributions as well as the opportunity for groups to register, create their own pages to promote their activities and curate their own content. If you have any questions about the site, content or registering please get in touch.

Some of you may have seen this already, but if not Lepe have put out a call to arms:

An exciting opportunity to collaborate with volunteers, local organisations and others to ensure that Lepe’s heritage remains at the heart of the experience visitors have at Lepe, is about to be kick-started by the team at the Park.

Staff are looking for any willing volunteers who have an interest in Lepe’s heritage who might have a few hours a month to give to a variety of projects over the next year or so. We already have some tangible outcomes we’re looking to achieve, so if you might be able to help, please come along to a meeting on Wednesday 6th December in the Lepe classroom between 2pm – 3pm (with hot drinks & cake, naturally!).

The team at Lepe will share what they’re keen to achieve and to ask for volunteers to sign up to join a steering group. This group will be chaired by a member of the Park team but the projects involved will very much be a collaboration of the group.

Alternatively, if you’re unable to make the meeting, please contact either Anna or Gerrie in the Park office on 02380 899108 who will be able to tell you more.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and look forward to working with you all in the New Year.